SCOBY First?

[MetalMan2004]

I've read a few how to's on making kombucha and they all Say to make a SCOBY first. So I took their advice and I have 7 cups of tea with 1 cup of combucha and the bany SCOBY that was in the bottle of store bought combucha. In a couple/ few weeks I should have a nice big SCOBY.

I took a look at this forum (I use it for beer brewing all the time) and the first thread I read had someone say that they don't even use a SCOBY because it grows back in each batch anyways.

Since the recipe for combucha is the same as making the SCOBY just with less time, it seems like I have multiple paths I could follow here.

A) I could grow the SCOBY like I originally intended to.
B) I could just see how it is in a week and bottle some stinkin combucha.

Which would you choose? If I go route B will my SCOBY just keep growing bigger with each batch until it is normal size?

 

[SanPancho]

if you have your brewing gear handy and dont mind mixing bugs, i'd just let that sucker go wild, and when it tastes right, siphon off a bunch, then fill it back up with more tea/sugar mix. i assume scoby growth slows down at some point in the process, so this is like repitching a new beer on an old yeast cake or building a starter up in size.

 

[MetalMan2004]

Seems easy enough. Also, how many batches do I have to brew before I'm allowed to call it "booch"?

 

[hunter_le five]

The term "SCOBY" is a bit of a misnomer. It stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, yet it is used to refer to the blob of cellulose that forms over the top of the tea. This blob is mostly just a byproduct of fermentation; the actual fermenting power comes from the bacteria and yeast swimming around in your starter tea (that one cup of kombucha you added to the sweet tea).

So to answer your question, either path would be fine.

You can call it "booch" whenever you damn well please.